Chapter 79: Section 80: Fat Ball Flying Fish


    Acid Liquid Green Lizards stretched their robust legs, racing against each other and exhibiting their agile and fierce stances.


    Zhenjin made a preliminary estimate that there were at least three hundred Green Lizards.


    Among them, there were over thirty at the Black Iron Level, more than sixty at the Bronze Level, and the rest were ordinary Green Lizards.


    Once the lizards entered the Oasis, they rampaged around, sweeping everything in their path.


    Then, without slowing down, they nearly sprinted into the lake.


    Numerous footprints of the lizards were left by the lake, along with traces where their tails had dragged across the ground.


    ...


    The lake’s surface was no longer calm, stirring up sparkling waves. The lizards’ deep green and emerald scales were washed clean, free from the dust of their journey through the desert.


    Some of the Black Iron and Bronze Level lizards began to frolic, diving into the lake, stretching their limbs, and flicking their tails as they swam underwater. After a while, they would resurface, blowing misty breath from their nostrils and gasping for air with their mouths wide open.


    Most of the lizards stood in the shallows, bowing their heads and continuously drawing water.


    “These lizards are both hungry and thirsty,” Zi Di remarked with concern in her eyes.


    Hungry beasts are full of aggression.


    Standing beside her were Zhenjin and Cang Xu, both with solemn expressions.


    Bai Ya arrived shortly after.


    After a night’s rest, he finally had enough strength to move, albeit with difficulty. Hearing the commotion caused by the lizards, he could no longer stay put and walked over with effort.


    After reaching Zhenjin’s side, he bent down, supporting himself with his hands on the ground and sitting directly on the earth while gasping for air and gazing at the distant group of lizards.


    Bai Ya’s face was very pale as he said in fits and starts, “The lizard group… is here, huff, huff… Will the Scorpion group come?”


    His fractured injury would take a long time to heal, nowhere near Zhenjin’s recovery ability.


    However, as time passed, the four people observing the lizards gradually shifted from tension to relaxation.


    It was expected for a beast horde to appear at the Oasis.


    After all, it was the presence of such a horde that had led them to deduce the existence of a large water source nearby.


    Another reason why everyone was able to relax was that the lizards were all bustling by the lake and rarely scattered around the Oasis to roam and forage.


    When establishing this temporary camp, Zhenjin had already taken into consideration the possibility of beasts coming to drink water. Therefore, the camp’s location was quite advantageous.


    Zhenjin’s eyes flickered. In his view, these lizards were food. Looking at their robust bodies, weren’t they just bundles of jerky on the move?


    “These lizards are still drinking water, they can actually hold so much. Terrifying!” Bai Ya exclaimed after watching for a while.


    The lizards were still guzzling, with the Bronze and Black Iron Level lizards submerged in the lake, their jaws wide open, letting the water pour directly into their spacious throats.


    Cang Xu mused, “That’s because this type of Acid Liquid Lizard has three stomachs, one main stomach for digesting food. The other two auxiliary stomachs are used for water storage. They are natural giant water bags.”


    “With their size, they naturally need a lot of water to move. Don’t forget, they also spray acid. To produce that acid liquid in their bodies, they already require a considerable amount of water.”


    Cang Xu had dissected Green Skin Lizards before and was very familiar with these beasts.


    “Perhaps we could make water bags out of the stomachs of these lizards?” Zi Di suddenly suggested, knowing all too well that the progress of making clay pots was slow.


    Cang Xu thought for a moment, “We can try.”


    After some discussion, they decided that Zhenjin would take action, hunting the lizards stealthily. Zi Di and Cang Xu would continue their unfinished work, while Bai Ya, still frail, would focus on rest.


    But Bai Ya insisted on doing work. Seeing the young man’s eager expression, Zhenjin assigned him the task of twisting hemp ropes.


    Armed with an iron knife and carrying an iron sword on his back, Zhenjin left the temporary camp.


    He climbed a readily climbable, slanted coconut tree, giving him an extensive view for careful scouting.


    No lizards were found near the camp.


    Zhenjin then climbed down the tree and slowly approached the group of lizards by the lake.


    The concentrated activity of the lizard group made the temporary camp safe, but conversely, it increased the difficulty of Zhenjin’s hunting.


    Zhenjin didn’t want to rashly attack and enrage the entire horde, causing a pursuit.


    Animal behavior is hard to predict. Sёarch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    If Zhenjin were caught in the midst of the horde, he too would face great danger. If Cang Xu, Zi Di, Bai Ya, and Lan Zao were involved, it would be even more so.


    Even though Zhenjin could transform into a Silver Spear Scorpion, the scale of this group of lizards was large, far surpassing the one he had encountered in the Gold Mica Stone cluster before.


    Moreover, Zhenjin wasn’t planning to use the Heart Core.


    There were many reasons.


    The first was that suddenly having a Silver Spear Scorpion appear would be highly suspicious. Both Cang Xu and Zi Di were very clever, and the more Zhenjin deceived, the greater the chance of being exposed.


    The second reason was Zhenjin’s wariness towards the Demon Crystal in his heart. Absorbing the bloodline of other lives through the Heart Core was cruel and evil, and Zhenjin, as a Holy Temple Knight, naturally rejected and was disgusted with such things.


    The third reason was Zhenjin’s own concern. He couldn’t grasp the essence of the Heart Core and worried about potential hidden dangers. An intuition told him that the more he used the Heart Core, the more likely he was to stray from the path of a Knight in the future.


    Zhenjin wasn’t in a hurry.


    His young and handsome face bore not a trace of naivety, but was filled with a reliable and composed temperament.


    Countless times of hardship and desperate situations had honed his body and mind.


    Zhenjin decided to wait and see, waiting for a possible hunting opportunity.


    Gua gua gua…


    “What’s that sound?” Zhenjin looked puzzled.


    After waiting for about an hour, he heard unusual sounds coming from the lake.


    The noises sounded similar to the croaks of frogs, but upon close listening, it was clear that these sounds were more muted than frog croaks.


    Zhenjin gazed intently but found no sign of frogs, yet the lizards began to show unusual behavior.


    Numerous lizards plunged into the water, paddling with their limbs and swimming swiftly.


    They opened their mouths, fighting fiercely in the water, stirring up waves.


    Some lizards simply tilted their heads back and ejected streams of acid.


    The acid shot into the air, suddenly striking something transparent. With the coating of green acid, the invisible beast revealed its true form.


    It was a kind of fish, resembling a pufferfish that had swelled up in defense, plump and round, floating in midair, propelling itself with pale yellow tails and fins.


    They had sharp, pitch-black spines all over their bodies, the source of the guttural frog-like sounds.


    After being corroded by the acid, the Fat Ball Flying Fish fell into the lake one after another. The surrounding lizards swarmed in, competing with each other and quickly consuming the Fat Ball Flying Fish.


    “What’s happening?” Cang Xu and Zi Di were drawn by this unusual scene.


    “These Fat Ball Flying Fish were hidden in the depths of the lake, and now the lizards have provoked them into coming out,” Zhenjin speculated.


    “It’s strange. We can’t see these Fat Ball Flying Fish with the naked eye, but the lizards can see them clearly,” Zi Di said, frowning slightly.


    A thoughtful light flashed in Cang Xu’s eyes, “I think I understand why. These Acid Liquid lizards have a visual system similar to many snake species. They perceive objects by the heat they emit, and the higher the heat, the more it attracts the attention of these lizards.”


    “These Fat Ball Flying Fish, for lack of a better name, emit at least some heat. We probably can’t see them because their skin has chameleon-like camouflage capabilities.”


    As the lizards hunted the Fat Ball Flying Fish in large numbers, the fish began to slowly float up into the middle of the air to escape.


    But since the lizards could all spray acid, they shot them down one by one.


    Zhenjin noticed that these Fat Ball Flying Fish also had means of counterattack. Some would suddenly burst, emitting a burst of hot water, and their pitch-black spines would scatter explosively in all directions.


    The spines clearly carried a deadly toxin; upon hitting the lizards, Zhenjin could see the wounds immediately turn pitch-black.


    The pitch-black wounds quickly rotted the flesh and scales. What started as a mere dot soon expanded rapidly to the size of a bowl.


    However, the lizards had their own strategy.


    Upon seeing a fellow lizard struck by a spine, the others would crowd around, covering the black wound with their mouths and suctioning hard.


    The terrifying black toxin was then sucked into the lizards’ poison glands.


    Then, as the lizards opened their mouths to spray their venom, the originally green acid, now mixed with the black toxin, turned into a deep green, increasing its potency.


    A spark of insight crossed Cang Xu’s eyes, recalling the dissection of lizards. He had an epiphany, “Inside the lizard’s mouth are glands that shoot venom; these glands’ muscles can expand to absorb liquids from outside. Once they’ve absorbed the toxin, it effectively detoxifies the other lizards. This organ has such a clever use!”


    The Acid Liquid lizards had been brutally oppressed by scorpions and had been heavily culled by the exploration team, but now they were fiercely defending themselves.


    They were very effective at restraining the Fat Ball Flying Fish.


    “It seems that these Fat Ball Flying Fish are probably the main prey of these lizards,” Zi Di conjectured.


    Gua gua gua!


    Gua gua gua!


    After watching the battle for a moment, the calls of the Fat Ball Flying Fish became more and more frequent and louder.


    The expressions of Zhenjin and the others gradually changed.


    More and more of the Fat Ball Flying Fish became visible in the battle, and their number was increasing at a terrifying rate.


    And that was just what they could see with their eyes; there were many more unseen!


    The Fat Ball Flying Fish were too numerous, quickly gaining the advantage in numbers and encircling the lizards.


    After a great deal of feeding and watering, the aggression of the lizards diminished.


    The counterattack from the group of Fat Ball Flying Fish grew stronger and the lizards began to retreat.


    Dark toxic spines flew continuously, and many lizards were pierced after they paused to suck the toxin from a comrade, ending up riddled with them.


    Within a dozen breaths, these lizards dissolved into a puddle of black water, which dispersed without a trace in the vast lake.